Stupa: Cult and Symbolism

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Stupa as a monument, its symbolism, ritual and construction have been studied in modern scholarship for the last two hundred years. This volume reproduces a number of studies of Prof. Gustav Roth on its architectural details, philosophical concepts it embodies, its symbolic significance in a number of Sanskrit texts. The other minor writings of Roth include a long study of goldsmiths and artists in Jain and Chinese texts besides their representations at Bharhut, Udayagiri and Khandagiri. Roth discusses the nativity of Jesus Christ in relation to the birth of Gosāla Mańkhaliputta in a cowshed. The symbols of a trident and dharmacakra on Maccabee coins of Judea are revealing. The parallels between Indic texts and the New Testament pointed out by Roth are striking and deserve further research. Prof. Franz-Karl Ehrhard of München (Germany) deals with Svayambhunath in Tibetan texts. Prof. Kimiaki Tanaka identifies the iconography of Haripur (Orissa) with the Māyājāla-tantra. Prof. Lokesh Chandra discusses the nature of the Borobudur as a Sumeru for the Vajradhātu-mandala, while its several levels pertain to different sutras that finally culminated in the Vajradhātu system. The volume is rich in new material and fresh interpretations of the stupa which was central to the Buddhist conceptual world, so much so that the present Chinese currency note of 1 yuan issued in 1999 shows stupas in the waters of oceanic consciousness.

It occurs as early wel the Rigveda in the sense of "a tuft of hair, the upper part of the head, crest, top, summit", as well as in Greek stúpos. Thus it goes far back into antiquity of the Indo-European family of languages. When Trapusa and Bhallika visited Lord Buddha in the eighth week after His Enlightenment, they offered Him eatables. The Buddha gave them eight handfuls of his hair. They took the hair to their city of Asitañjana and built a cetiya to deposit them for worship. Rays of light radiated from the cetiya. The connection of the tuft of hair of the Rigveda is preserved in this incident (see details in my Cultural Horizons of India, vol. III. 140-145).